Qulla people in the context of Jujuy Province

The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the latitude of the widest part of the north–south-trending Andes. The bulk of the Altiplano lies in Bolivia, but its northern parts lie in Peru, its southwestern fringes lie in Chile, and it extends into Argentina.

Many towns and several cities are on the plateau, including El Alto and Oruro in Bolivia and Juliaca and Puno in Peru. The northeastern part of the Altiplano is more humid than the southwestern part, which has several salares (salt flats), due to its aridity. At the Bolivia–Peru border lies Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America. Farther south, in Bolivia, Lake Poopó existed until recently, but by December 2015, it had completely dried up, and was declared defunct. Whether that lake, which had been the second-largest in Bolivia, can be restored is unclear.

Sillustani is a pre-Inca cemetery on the shores of Lake Umayo near Puno in Peru. The tombs, which are built above ground in tower-like structures called chullpas, are the vestiges of the Qulla people, most likely a Puquina-speaking people, conquered by the Inca Empire in the 15th century.

The structures housed the remains of complete family groups, although they were probably limited to nobility. Many of the tombs have been dynamited by grave robbers, while others were left unfinished.